Man at Work

GX100, f3.5, 1/50, ISO 100, RAW, 35mm

Taking Notes

GX100, f3.7, 1/160, ISO 100, RAW, 50mm

GX100 in Greenwich

A day in Greenwich with a great friend who has helped me a lot through the past months so it was great to spend the day chatting and taking photos.

Greenwich has changed quite a lot recently but it's still the nicest part of London together with Blackheath.

While I had a lot of cameras to decide between, I went with the GX100 since it's still a fantastic camera and still going strong even after all this time.

While I won't miss most parts of London, I will miss Greenwich and just chilling at a pub by the river and enjoying a pint.

Empire State

GX100, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 100, RAW, 72mm

Football Practice

GX100, f4.4, 1/620, ISO 100, RAW, 50mm

For this picture I had an idea and wated to make it look like an old newspaper photograph. For this I went and did the opposite of what I usually do, I lowered the contrast and brightened the picture up.

Fire in North Greenwich

GX100, f5.6, 1/800, ISO 100, RAW, 72mm

My last pictures were all a bit dark and without much happening in them, or a bit boring in other words.
Today, I decided to take a walk through Greenwich on my way to the cinema. I saw the smoke of a fire in the indutstrial area and decided to take a picture. I tried to give it a slightly warm tone by using the cloudy WB setting in camera.

Keep Driveway Clear

GX100, f2.5, 1/440, ISO 100, JPG, 24mm

I helped a friend move house so did not have much time for photography today but found this scene very funny.

Passage

GX100, f3.5, 1/50, ISO 367, RAW, 50mm

I have to say that from all the Ricoh cameras I have used so far the GRD I and GX100 still have the best image quality. Both are a great example that more MP and further sensor development have not really brought any significant advantages, quite the opposite actually when considering that the GX200 has almost the worst high ISO quality of any Ricoh camera.

Green Dress

GX100, f7, 1/400, ISO 80, RAW, 50mm

Took this during lunch today. We finally had some sun shining during the day so the shadows and reflections made photography more interesting. I decided to use the GX100 and thought the zoom will come in handy. It did not really and I usually preferred using 28mm and 24mm.
I really like this picture and while I can't exactly say why I like it so much, I did know that this is the picture for today after I took it.

Urban Decay - Part 1

Another series and the first in a multipart series depicting urban decay in London. I will try to upload the next parts over the next weeks and months.
London is on the one side a very old city with great Victorian buildings, new modern developments, skyscrapers and old landmarks. The other side of London are derelict and abandoned buildings, factories and churches. I find it fascinating how both of these are sometimes right next to each other. It is hard to believe if you look at the ridiculous property prices that there are so many empty buildings (new and old).

Some of these buildings however deserve to be demolished, like these ex-council flats in Kidbrooke or the worst part of London in Elephant & Castle. At least the former will soon be demolished to make room for a new development.
When looking at some of the old council flats one has to wonder if these buildings were ever considered nice or what went on when people decided to build ugly grey concrete blocks of flats. Almost like piling up containers next and on top of each other. I for one hope these buildings will be demolished very soon to make room for new developments or better parks.

I took all pictures with the GX100, at first I thought of using the GRD I to get the grainy b&w look at ISO 400 but decided that some color will be better and the GX100 gave me the look I wanted and the versatility due to the zoom.

Sunset over Lamma Island

GX200, f3.5, 1/230, ISO 64, RAW, 50mm

After Guangzhou it was nice to have a break and be away from crowds and big cities. Lamma island is fun and a nice visit, at least once.
The GX100 got drenched by a wave while being on but it still worked fine and after drying it for a while it's like new. The lens might be wobbly as a design choice and there are dust problems with it but it survived this without a problem.Water definitely god inside but drying got rid of it. My GRD I started acting up after having water get inside through the lens.

Ricoh Diary

Ok, the post today will serve more as an announcement for a few things.

First, a big thank you to Ricoh for sending me the GX200 and R10 for review. I will try to write a comprehensive review of each camera in it's own right and also compare it with the other Ricoh cameras. This will all be done in the next weeks depending on time and more on weather.

Second, the Ricohforum meet-up is approaching so be sure to check out the thread or the details on my Wordpress blog. We will have someone from Ricoh and a few other guests taking part in it so it should be very interesting. Post in the forum if you're coming or if you want to forward any feedback or questions to Ricoh.

And third, I've had a quick look through some pictures for my low light/high ISO comparison and the results are very interesting. Will post a first teaser soon on my Wordpress blog.

The Bargehouse

I went back to the Bargehouse today to take some more pictures of it and this time I used the GRD I with the adapter lenses. It performed better due to the faster lens but the focus was more difficult and even with the fast lens I had to use ISO 400-1600 for the pictures.
There is one picture from the GX100 in there and developed from RAW, you can try to find it and see if it does stand out.

Smoke and Light

GX100, f4.4, 1/10, ISO 800, RAW, 72mm

Today, I tried something new but it did not really work out. I always wanted to try taking pictures of smoke in a ray of light to see the diferent shapes that can appear. This did not work out as expected so I will need to try again. At the same time I think I pushed the file too much to get close to the look I wanted.

I've met recently with Tom and we've collected a few ideas on how to improve the GRD and have done a rendering so check it out here. Let us know what you think and what you would improve.

Man In Motion

GX100, f2.9, 1/125, ISO 100, RAW, 24mm

While I did not take many pictures yesterday, I took lots of pictures today. Originally, I planned a series on the Bargehouse and I've been there indeed and took lots of pictures. Now I tok this picture on the way there from the hip and had to crop it a lot.
Now, why did I choose this picture instead of the Bargehouse series that was planned? First, this picture just works great for me and it stands out between the rest of the pictures I took today. It's also a picture that I or anyone else will never take again. Second, I want to take more pictures of the Bargehouse over the weekend and see if it's possible to get in when it's empty so I can take soe more pictures. It is a great and very interesting building that offers great photo opportunities unless you only like to photograph nice things. You can say that I scouted the location today and will return over the weekend to take the pictures I want.

Drawing St. Paul's

GX100, f4.9, 1/800, ISO 100, JPG, 72mm

Using the GX100 is text mode showed me the difference between the lenses from the GRD and GX. The GRD lens has more contrast so work better with this mode and the GRD also saves the picture as TIFF for some reason.

I did not spend much time taking pictures today but worked instead on my Wordpress blog to improve it and make it more usefull. If you remember I've set it up on my 100th post to use it as a backup or to move my blog here. I did and still do not really like the Wordpress interface so have just been using it as a backup and imported the posts randomly. I started thinking of deleting it a while ago but then decided to use it for something more usefull.
So today, I have set it up as an archive of all my reports, comparisons and reviews I did on this blog. This should make it easier for people to find things and I will also be able to post more news and other things that would be too long or would just not work within the format here. You can check it out at Ricoh GR-Diary @ Wordpress. It is still work in progress so let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Site Office

GX100, f4.1, 1/250, ISO 200, RAW, 24mm

Saw this while walking in Greenwich today and found it really funny. Cropped to 16:9 format, sharpened it and increased the contrast. Now the picture is mre crisp and comes close to the GRD I quality. Overall, I am more comfortable now with the processing of GX100 RAW files and can get out more although the dynamic range is pretty limited, especially when compared with the GRDs.
It is a great camera though and the LC-1 lenscap is genius and a must have. Only problem is the case which is not optimal to get the camera out fast unlike the GRD case.

Burn

GX100, f4.4, 1/30, ISO 200, RAW, 72mm

This week will be a GX100 week and following from yesterday's picture is another candle picture for today. Almost like a bigger zoom/crop of the picture from yesterday ;).
So far I noticed three things about it, the lens is slower than the GRD, I mostly use the long end of the zoom and the image quality is even in RAW not as good and detailed as the GRD I. But the camera feels very good to handle and is a lot more versatile than the GRDs so you don't have to lug around adapters with you.

Candlelight

GX100, f4.4, 1/2, ISO 400, 72mm

This is a heavy crop from a picture I took today in a pub with the GX100. The rest of the picture just did not work but I love the light and expression.

The GX100 is a great camera but the very slow lens at 50mm and 72mm is a big problem and why I prefer the GRDs with 40mm adapter. This is also one of the reasons people are interested in the Panasonic LX3. The lens might have massive barrel distortion and fringing problems but these are fixed by the software before you see them and the lens is still very bright. Why I just can't live with the handling of the LX3, I hope Ricoh can improve the GX series to include a fast f2 or f2.4 lens going from 21mm-90mm without making the camera bigger. A lot of people want bigger sensors in cameras but for me the most important aspect is a fast lens. This would actually benefit my photography more than any big sensor since I don't care about noise-free images, tiny details or shallow DOF (unless I'm using macro mode).

Watch the Bucket

GX100, f3.5, 1/25, ISO 80, RAW, 50mm

The City of London is very interesting, it has character and great architecture. Especially on weekends it is worth a visit as it's almost deserted so it's easy to take pictures.
This is taken with the GX100 since I only took the 21mm lens for the GRD and this required some zoom.